Europe

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Western officials said in Davos on Wednesday they were open to the idea of confiscating $300 billion of Russian assets to help Ukraine, but cautioned that the devil was in the legal detail and that, even if it could be done, it would be no panacea for Kyiv.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry, blocking around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron made a point of showing his leadership hasn’t faded in more than two hours of answering questions at a news conference in which he promised a stronger France to face the world’s challenges.

“I still have three years and a half in office,” he said, describing an ambition to both change the daily life of the French and tackle global crises.

Macron’s wide-ranging news conference followed the appointment last week of France’s youngest-ever prime minister.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a test of his authority and his nerve on Wednesday as he tries to subdue a Conservative Party rebellion and win parliamentary approval for his stalled plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the need for a “pathway to a Palestinian state” during a talk Wednesday at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, saying Israel would not “get genuine security absent that.”

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine is locked in an existential battle for its survival almost two years into its war with Russia and Western armies and political leaders must drastically change the way they help it fend off invading forces, a top NATO military officer said on Wednesday.

At a meeting of the 31-nation alliance’s top brass, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, also said that behind President Vladimir Putin’s rationale for the war is a fear of democracy, in a year marked by elections around the world.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia fired two missiles at Kharkiv during the night, hitting apartment buildings and a medical center and injuring 17 people in the city in northeastern Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, in Moscow’s latest strikes on civilian areas in the almost two-year war.

The S-300 missiles landed after dark Tuesday, Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.

BUDAPEST, January 16. /TASS/: Budapest believes that the European Union should provide assistance to Ukraine without damaging its own budget, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

"I think that we should help Ukraine but without damaging the European Union’s budget," Orban told reporters following talks with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico.

He added that financial assistance to Kiev should be provided outside of the EU budget.

DAVOS, January 16. /TASS/: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has described the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine as extremely difficult for the Ukrainian army and called for not underestimating Russia.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/: Russia is gaining allies around the world, as most countries support the idea of a multipolar world, so Russian parliamentarians need to build and develop relations with them, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said, speaking at the first plenary session of the chamber's spring meeting.

MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with the foreign ministers of Russia and North Korea, Sergey Lavrov and Choe Son Hui, who earlier in the day held talks in Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Russian President Vladimir Putin received at the Kremlin DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui," Peskov said.

According to him, the top diplomats informed the Russian president of the agreements reached.